Photographer makes his work useful in the home

After 32 years working for the U.S. Postal Service, Dave King decided to retire and turn his hobby of photography into a business.

Amy Berkowitz

After 32 years working for the U.S. Postal Service, Dave King decided to retire and turn his hobby of photography into a business.

But he knew he had “had to do something different” so his photos would stand out among all the others. So six months ago, the Lagrangeville. N.Y., resident bought a heat press machine for about $400 and started transferring his photos onto tiles.

A heat press permanently affixes photos to an object. The picture can then withstand heat and being washed, so he features his photos on tiles, coasters, cutting boards, trivets and hard board (lighter than tile). He hopes to include mouse pads and iPhone covers in the future. And while he is looking into using ordinary tiles, King says he works with special tiles coated with polyester.

King says he has a good eye and sees “much more than the average person.” That has nothing to do with eyesight but has everything to do with how he captures the moment through his camera lens and how others respond to what he sees. Since he has lived in Dutchess County, N.Y., since 1982, the Hudson Valley serves as his main backdrop. He also snaps photos of New York City his original home. Being of Irish descent and getting the opportunity to travel to Ireland in 2009, King also has many pictures of the Emerald Isle.

King’s photography hobby developed when his three children were young; they were his main photo subjects. Later he became focused on landscape photography. About 15 years ago, he was at his child’s soccer tournament and saw one of the parents working with a digital camera.

“The pixels were bad and you couldn’t enlarge the picture,” King said.

So he waited for the technology to improve, and once it did he didn’t miss his manual/automatic with interchangeable lenses because film became expensive to process.

“I could take 100 photos because the light (changed),” King said. “It was an opportunity to get more involved into photography because you could take more pictures for less money.”

Light isn’t the only thing that changes. He visits the same spots repeatedly and can come back with very different images. He gives the “Imagine” medallion at New York City’s Central Park – a tribute to the late John Lennon – as a good example of this.

“’Imagine’ changes every day (depending on items left on it and time of day),” he said. “It’s a dynamic. It’s almost a living thing.”

His business continues to evolve. King will circle back to capturing people and their celebrations again, but this time he won’t be the photographer behind the lens. His son Daniel is a wedding photographer. With King’s heat press and Daniel’s wedding pictures, couples will be able to preserve that special day forever and also utilize those memories in their homes.